Ongoing Education for Teachers!

From November 13th-15th I had the opportunity to learn about innovation now and in the future at the TEDYouth 2015 Conference in New York City. I was invited to attend the conference as a member of the first cohort of TED-Ed Innovative Educators--a worldwide professional development program for educators. While attending the TEDYouth conference I learned a lot about innovation, but I also learned a lot about myself and my role as an educator worldwide. Having an opportunity to collaborate with 27 other educators from around the world really gave me some perspective regarding life for educators and students world-wide. While attending this conference, I also shared information about life in our region--northeastern New York state. While representing the students and teachers at the Malone Middle School I intended to bring back as much information about innovation, global awareness, and the future of education as I possibly could! When I returned from the conference on November 19th I delivered a very passionate lesson to students about the importance of opening ourselves up to the perspectives of others in our world--we talked a lot about stereotypes, kindness and love, global awareness, and hate crimes/terrorism. I asked students to think about our role in these global topics--I challenged students to think about the small things that they might be able to do on a daily basis that would contribute to love and kindness in our world. After all, one of my biggest take-aways from TEDYouth was the ability of 28 educators from around the world to come together--without judgement, putting stereotypes aside, to understand eachother, learn from eachother, and contribute to our world--together. Below are some pictures from the TEDYouth Conference.

About the Author

Mrs. Jennifer Hesseltine teaches United States History at the Malone Middle School in Malone, New York. When not at school, Mrs. Hesseltine can be found researching innovative ways to peak student interest in learning. Mrs. Hesseltine was recently accepted into the first cohort of TED-Ed Innovative Educators, the education initiative of TED Talks. Mrs. Hesseltine is also a contributing author of the Teaching Channel Blog, and has also contributed ideas to the TED-Ed Blog and Education Week Teacher with Larry Ferlazzo. Contact Mrs. Hesseltine via email at jhesseltine@malonecsd.org, or via Twitter @jenhesseltine.